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AAR CRG with John McCreery in Ohio on Sept. 7-8, 2013

Close Range Gunfighting with John McCreery in Ohio on Sept. 7-8, 2013 was my first SI Class, and it exceeded my expectations. As a quick background, I’ve been in Law Enforcement since 1996 and have trained with some great instructors. I’m currently a Lead Instructor for my department’s Firearms Training Unit. Since my department is low on funds, I budget for 2-4 training classes per year and pay for these classes myself. Although out of state training classes get expensive, I feel that it’s worth it.

My goals for the weekend were to increase my skill level and become more dangerous. These goals were accomplished. Instructor John McCreery is a professional with a ton of knowledge to offer his students. He was more than willing to go above and beyond to guarantee his students’ success. I was impressed with the SI curriculum and methodology. I found myself smiling inside throughout the weekend. There were times when I got so pumped during or after a dynamic drill that I wanted to yell out (“Yeah!!” or something similar but didn’t). Weird, huh? Haha.

My fellow students were great guys. They each had their own experiences to bring to the table and were personable. I started to experience what guys on WT refer to as being part of the Tribe. It was a good feeling. There were a few Glocks, a Springfield XD and an M&P9 Compact being used over the weekend. After the safety brief, we got into the class overview and got right into the workload. Dry fire exercises began most drills, and these repetitions laid the groundwork for our new skills. I started Day 1 with a G17 with Iron Sights. After lunch and for Day 2, I transferred over to my G17 with RMR. Since I don’t see my sights during up close engagements, not seeing the red dot up close wasn’t an issue. When distance increased, the RMR really showed its worth. After each day, we were able to stay and try our skills at 50 & 100 yards. The RMR’d G17 made for easy work at those distances. That being said, the operator still needs to have solid fundamentals to get hits.

We worked on busting off the X, working on 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock movements. Driving off the X, while drawing and shooting, was always dynamic. “See what you need to see.” was emphasized, and it rang true. You find what you need to, in order to make solid hits on your adversary and suppress the threat(s). “Floating hand”, “the fence”, “the bicycle”, “loaded” hammer fist, pre-fight indicators, target areas, ready positions, flashlight techniques, proactive reloads, scanning, Sul position and checking yourself for injuries were just some of the points discussed over the weekend. Transitions, malfunctions, one hand manipulations and one hand non-dominant manipulations were all covered and drilled.

Over the weekend, we worked inside bad breath distances and LOVED it. We had our threat(s) up close and personal and dealt with them accordingly. Untrained people get uncomfortable inside this touching distance. We were in there, nestling in and making it OUR advantage. Ugh, I feel like yelling again…haha.The Day 1 round count for me was 300 rounds. The Day 2 round count for me was 250 rounds. By the end of the weekend, we all increased our skill set and had fun in the process. Thanks John. I look forward to training with you again in the near future.